Known fishing reels of this type have a spindle which is rotatably and axially displaceably mounted in a housing and which carries a line spool at one end thereof. The line spool is non-rotatably connected to the spindle and axially fixed thereto. A drive shaft extending at right angles to the spindle is mounted in the housing to be rotated by means of a handle. A driving gear is non-rotatably mounted on the drive shaft and meshes with an oscillating gear mounted in the housing. The oscillating gear has an eccentric pin engaging a driver element axially fixed on the spindle.
When the handle is rotated for retrieving a fishing line fixed to the line spool, the drive shaft and, thus, the driving gear rotate. The driving gear drives the oscillating gear whose eccentric pin moves the driver element back and forth in the longitudinal direction of the spindle. The driver element then oscillates the spindle and, thus, the line spool in the longitudinal direction of the spindle. Through a gear transmission provided in the housing, the handle drives a hollow shaft projecting from the housing and coaxial with the spindle which extends through this shaft. The hollow shaft drives a rotor non-rotatably mounted thereon and carrying a bail for winding the line onto the line spool.
When retrieving the line, this is thus wound onto the line spool which, as opposed to the rotor, does not rotate, but instead executes an axial oscillatory movement. In this manner, the line will be evenly distributed across the line spool. Such an even distribution of the line is however at an optimum only for a particular line diameter. When use is made of a line whose diameter is larger or smaller than this particular line diameter, the winding up of the line will be offset such that the diameter of the mass of fishing line wound onto the line spool does not become the same across the entire axial extent of the line spool, but larger at one or the other end of the line spool. When, after line retrieve, a new cast is made, the line located in the higher region of the wound-up line mass will slide down towards the lower region thereof, thus reducing the possibilities of making long casts.
The object of the present invention therefore is to overcome this problem and provide an open-face fishing reel of the fixed-spool type in which an even line distribution across the line spool can be obtained, independent of the line diameter.